🌍 The World Grows Colder
The morning after Kaen's trial dawned unnaturally quiet.
The Mind Palace shimmered with restored clarity, every hall and corridor awake again with memory. But in the waking world, the tide was shifting—dangerously.
Somewhere deep within the V5 Coalition's embassy on the Black Whale—a vessel bound for the Dark Continent—a room dimly lit by lanterns stirred with the voice of a very familiar devil.
Pariston Hill smiled at the monitors arrayed before him.
"So Kaen survived. Even that version of the trial… fascinating."
Behind him stood two men in shadow, agents of the V5—nations terrified of the unpredictable King rising in the world of Hunters.
"Sir," one muttered.
"Do we move now?"
Pariston's smile widened, fanged.
"No. We send a gift."
⸻
📡 Message from the V5
Back at Kaen's temporary base near the edge of the Black Whale's private Hunter decks, Gon, Kurapika, and Melody gathered as Kaen stared at a transmission stone—a Nen-sealed device only authorized Hunters could receive.
The message was text-based but encrypted in a vibration pulse that only Kaen could decode using his Mind Palace.
As he touched the device, reality blinked—and a vision of Beyond Netero appeared within Kaen's internal dream.
"Kaen. We haven't met, but your name dances around dangerous mouths lately."
"The Dark Continent is no place for innocence or ambition. It devours both."
"If you truly want to be King, come prove yourself where kings are eaten alive."
A map flickered into place—a covert V5 base camp near the Gate of Calamity.
Then the message cut.
Kaen exhaled slowly.
"They want to test me."
Kurapika frowned.
"No. They want to control you."
Melody closed her eyes.
"And if you don't go… they'll come anyway."
⸻
🔥 The Spider Moves
In a smoke-filled ruin beneath Deck 3, the Phantom Troupe gathered around a campfire of Nen.
Chrollo Lucifer gazed into the flame, his eyes half-lidded, fingers tracing symbols in the ash.
His book floated beside him—Bandit's Secret—open to a new page.
One none of them had seen before.
Mind Palace: Echo Crown of False Memory.
Shalnark, back in semi-functional cyborg form, blinked.
"That's Kaen's?"
Chrollo nodded.
"Or a copy of it… left behind in the Hunter Database. Someone's been studying him since the Succession War started."
Feitan clicked his blade into place.
"We kill him, or steal it?"
Chrollo smiled faintly.
"Neither. We use someone he trusts."
From the shadows stepped a figure none of them recognized—
But Corone did.
She appeared behind Chrollo in a flicker of golden fog.
"I'm no thief."
"But I do want to see how far he'll go for someone like me."
Her aura pulsed: half-pure, half-corrupted—dream and nightmare fused.
Chrollo's eyes gleamed.
"Then let's make a deal."
⸻
⚔️ Training Begins Again
Before they could set out for the V5 rendezvous, Kaen called the others to the Mind Palace—a training hall made entirely of dream-forged weapons and illusions built to challenge every category of Nen.
He stood at the center of the room, cloaked in simple clothes but surrounded by floating memory shards—fragments of abilities he'd absorbed or imagined.
"If we're heading to the Dark Continent… we need to be ready."
"For beasts, disasters, and worse—ourselves."
Kurapika stepped forward first.
"I'll spar you. But this time… you won't be holding back."
Kaen nodded.
"This time, I'll let my palace unfold."
He clapped his hands—and the ground beneath them split open.
Out poured entire rooms of memory-formed constructs—villains from Kaen's childhood dreams, copied foes from the Hunter Exam, imagined versions of Hisoka, and even a roaring Chimera Ant.
Kurapika's eyes blazed.
"You've been busy."
"I had to be," Kaen replied.
The two clashed, chains whipping, psychic projections bursting across the room. Kurapika's Chain Jail collided with Kaen's Crown Spiral, the dream-constructs cheering like ghosts of ambition.
Gon cheered from the side.
"Hey! Let me in after!"
Melody just clutched her instrument, eyes trembling.
"This aura… it's getting more divine by the hour."
⸻
⚠️ An Unexpected Visitor
The training stopped the moment a ripple of space appeared in the hallway of the Mind Palace.
Not conjured by Kaen. Not built from dream-memory.
Something… external.
A woman stepped through—a tall, severe-looking Hunter clad in all black, carrying a spear etched with symbols older than V5 itself.
"Kaen of Whale Island," she said.
"My name is Sirena Vell, Envoy of Gatewatch."
Gon blinked.
"Gatewatch…? As in, the guardians of the Calamities?!"
Sirena nodded.
"The King of the Mind is being summoned."
"The door to the Dark Continent… is opening wider."
She looked directly into Kaen's eyes.
"And something is trying to walk through you."
⸻
🔮 Coming Next: Chapter 62 – The Calamity Crown